for such a view here. For this reason, that explanation of these words
which supposes that on the first day the _matter_ of light, or the
ether whose motions produce light, was created, and that on the fourth
day, when luminaries were appointed, it became visible by beginning to
undulate, must be abandoned; and the connection between these two
statements must be sought in some other group of facts than that
connected with the existence of the matter of light as distinct from
its undulations.

What, then, was the nature of the light which on the first day shone
without the presence of any local luminary? It must have proceeded
from luminous matter diffused through the whole space of the solar
system, or surrounding our globe as with a mantle. It was "clothed
with light as with a garment,"

"Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun was not."

We have already rejected the hypothesis that the primeval night
proceeded from a temporary obscuration of the atmosphere; and the
expression, "God said, Let light be," affords an additional reason,
since, in accordance with the strict precision of language which
everywhere prevails in this ancient document, a mere restoration of
light would not be stated in such terms. If we wish to find a natural
explanation of the mode of illumination referred to, we must recur to
one or other of the suppositions mentioned above, that the luminous
matter formed a nebulous atmosphere, slowly concentrating itself
toward the centre of the solar system, or that it formed a special
envelope of our earth, which subsequently disappeared.

We may suppose this light-giving matter to be the same with that which
now surrounds the sun, and constitutes the stratum of luminous
substance which, by its wondrous and unceasing power of emitting
light, gives him all his glory. To explain the division of the light
from the darkness, we need only suppose that the luminous matter, in
the progress of its concentration, was at length all gathered within
the earth's orbit, and then, as one hemisphere only would be
illuminated at a time, the separation of light from darkness, or of
day from night, would be established. This hypothesis, suggested by
the words themselves, affords a simple and natural explanation of a
statement otherwise obscure.

It is an instructive circumstance that the probabilities respecting
the early state of our planet, thus deduced from the Scriptural
narrative, correspond very closely wi